Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus and method for injecting granular materials in soil, and relates in particular but not exclusively to the injecting of nematicides in the soil.
In many areas the production of potatoes is limited by a particular class of pest known as nematodes which are distinguished in one aspect by the particularly long time scale during which they can infest the land in a semi-dormant form even though the crop upon which they feed is not grown. For example where land used for potato cropping is found to be infested with potato cyst-nematodes, it may be necessary, in the absence of any treatment, to leave the land for ten years before potatoes can safely be grown again. This is because the eggs of the nematodes remain in the ground with only limited hatching each year. The proportion of eggs hatched is related to the concentration remaining so that the fall in population is exponential.